Ryan Delaney

Ryan Delaney works on the Innovation Trail project - covering technology, economic development, startups and other issues relating to New York's innovation economy.

Ryan began his public radio career working for WAER in Syracuse while still in college, where his work was honored by the Syracuse Press Club. He then returned to Syracuse, N.Y. from Albany where he worked at WAMC. Prior to that, Ryan filed stories for The Allegheny Front in Pittsburgh.

Syracuse University basketball coach Jim Boeheim will appeal sanctions handed down on him from the NCAA, calling the penalties "unduly harsh."

For the first time since the NCAA released a report on the Syracuse athletic department March 6 charging the basketball program had run off the rails, Boeheim addressed the accusations. He spoke to the media for an hour Thursday at the Carrier Dome, saying he wanted to put forth his opinion on how events of academic fraud and poor oversight outlined by the NCAA took place.

The career of basketball coach Jim Boeheim at Syracuse University now has an end date, with his announced retirement coming in the aftermath of an NCAA investigation into his program.

The university says Boeheim’s retirement in three years will bring certainty to the program and allow for "a successful, longer-term transition in coaching leadership," Chancellor Kent Syverud wrote in an open letter.

The impact of an NCAA investigation into Syracuse University's athletics department has come to bear: Daryl Gross is out as athletic director and men's basketball coach Jim Boeheim will retire in three years.

The university also announced Wednesday it will appeal the vacation of more than 100 wins as ordered by the NCAA.

The lieutenant governor for New York says the state has money for infrastructure investment in sources other than the economic development competitions.

Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul said during a recent visit to Syracuse she understands the need for infrastructure upgrades in upstate, but disagrees with some leaders, including Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, who say fixing pipes and roads is necessary for economic development.

Top Syracuse University officials that work with student athletes say the culture that allowed for its top sports programs to violate NCAA rules over the span of a decade is no more.

The university says it took a number of steps to ensure better compliance with NCAA rules before the college sports governing body handed down the results of its investigation. That includes hiring Tony Powell to be assistant provost for student athlete development. He works closely with Rick Burton, who was named academic athletics representative last year.

Syracuse University could make a decision on whether to appeal harsh sanctions against its athletic department from the NCAA as early as next week.

Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud and other university officials plan to sit down Monday to discuss the penalties and fines handed down from the college athletics governing body. In a letter to university faculty, interim Vice Chancellor Liz Liddy detailed the meeting and timeline.

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is teaming up with an unlikely group of colleagues to push for more federal support of medical marijuana.

Gillibrand is one of three senators introducing a bill that would scale back federal enforcement of marijuana laws in states that have legalized medicinal or recreational pot.

She is co-sponsoring the bill with a fellow Democrat from New Jersey, Sen. Corey Booker, and Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul. They introduced the legislation Tuesday at a press conference in Washington.

Syracuse University basketball coach Jim Boeheim has been suspended for nine ACC conference games next season and Syracuse will lose 12 scholarships over four years as a result of multiple rules infractions committed over the last several years, the NCAA reported Friday.

Syracuse’s mayor says the state government is reversing a long tradition of supporting infrastructure investments in its cities.

Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner told the Thursday Morning Roundtable that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s reluctance to help Syracuse rebuild its water main system is “completely and totally at odds with New York state’s history.”

The possibility of Interstate 81 someday being buried under Syracuse is still alive, but it’s hard to tell just how seriously state transportation planners are considering it. Businesses and suburban-centric officials have been pushing for a so-called hybrid replacement for Interstate 81.

The Onondaga County Legislature has put its support behind a so-called hybrid option to replace Interstate 81 through Syracuse, the same day the Downtown Committee put its weight behind the boulevard plan.

It’s another example of the suburban versus urban divide that has developed over this lengthy debate about the future of Interstate 81.

The Downtown Committee compared the two options the state transportation department is formally studying right now: a rebuilt viaduct, or the highway’s diversion around the city and replacing it with a boulevard.

A sharply divided city argues over whether to keep a major transit link running through downtown, or to route it around the outskirts of town.

It’s nearly the same debate going on today, but this was in the 1920s. Then, Syracuse was arguing over whether to build an elevated rail corridor through downtown, as Dennis Connors, curator of the Onondaga Historical Association explains.

"And there was a whole campaign, the pro-leave it downtown and elevate it, versus the move it out of downtown and put it around the north side of the city," he said.

Central New York’s public transit system is facing a sizeable budget gap and it's proposing a major reduction in service if more funding isn’t provided.

This is not the first year Centro has spent more money running buses in its four central New York county service area than it’s taken in to do so, but according to the public transit authority’s executive director, Frank Kobliski, they’ve run out of one-time funding streams to fill the hole.

The Cayuga Indian Nation will have to continue to sort out a leadership dispute on its own, as the federal government has declined to make a ruling.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has decided that on an interim basis, it will continue to recognize the 2006 leadership structure of the Cayuga, which places Clint Halftown as the federal representative for the nation.

A Syracuse lawmaker is back with a third attempt to penalize people responsible for impassible sidewalks because of snow.

City councilor Bob Dougherty tried twice last year to impose fines for residents and businesses that didn’t shovel their sidewalks after a snowfall, but both were defeated.

Now, Dougherty wants to go after private plow drivers. "I haven’t been able to pass the stuff about clearing sidewalks, but at least this will address mainly the business owners that have the snow plowed up onto the sidewalk, boxing intersections," he said.

The Syracuse school district could be down a million dollars because of an unintended consequence of vacant properties being sold to the land bank.

Property tax collection is a major source of funding for public schools, but there are thousands of properties in Syracuse that the property taxes aren’t being collected on – either because they’re vacant or the owner isn’t paying. For those properties, the city has been covering the portion that would go to schools out of its own pocket.

The city of Utica has climbed its way out of near bankruptcy to post a sizeable budget surplus.

Utica’s government is smaller, shedding about 100 jobs in recent years. "Fire had cuts, police had cuts, city hall employees, we had cuts," said Mayor Robert Palmieri in an interview. "So we really had to do some soul searching and employees now are doing two and three different jobs."

There is plenty of snow on the ground, but frigid temperatures are keeping people away from upstate New York’s ski mountains.

With schools out for winter break last week, President’s Day week is usually a key money-maker for ski slopes. But temperatures barely got into the double digits last week and despite good conditions, many skiers stayed inside.

Jim Hickey, who owns Toggenburg Ski Resort south of Syracuse, says it was “crazy” how cold it was last week.

New York state is among the bottom in the nation for residents signed up to be organ donors. Only about a quarter of New Yorkers have consented to being organ donors, according to the Finger Lakes Donor Recovery Network.

That ranks the state 49th in the country. But it has the third highest need for organs.

The low statistic has prompted a new advocacy campaign, hoping to improve those numbers, called Pass Life On.

The sixth largest shopping mall in the country says it's taking a recent call to attack Western shopping centers by a terrorist group "very seriously."

Destiny USA, in Syracuse, was not formally named by Al-Shabab, as was The Mall of America and malls in England and Canada, in a video released over the weekend. The video calls on sympathizers to the terror group to carry out the attacks.

It was graduation day for a group of recruits from the Syracuse Police Academy.

Fifty-seven men and women were given their badges during a ceremony at the Palace Theater. Among them is Dan Medlock, who is joining the Syracuse Police Department. He says all the scrutiny police officers have been given in recent months was on his mind during the training.

Syracuse residents packed Syracuse’s city hall last night to voice their opposition to proposed service reductions on the public bus system. Councilors summoned the head of the Centro bus service to explain the transit agency’s gaping fiscal accounts.

The council chamber at city hall was packed on a freezing and snowy evening. A testament, many said, to the importance of Centro bus service to city residents.

One hundred-fifty Syracuse homeowners are being spared by the federal government from having to buy flood insurance.

City officials and Sen. Charles Schumer encouraged the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to re-examine measurements of Onondaga Creek. Wednesday, Schumer and Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner announced the maps will be revised and include fewer homes.